Oliver J Driscoll, Kristof Van Hecke, Christophe M L Vande Velde, Frank Blockhuys, Maarten Rubens, Tatsuhiro Kuwaba, Daniel J van de Pas, Walter Eevers, Richard Vendamme, Elias Feghali
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
This article explores the important, and yet often overlooked, solid-state structures of selected bioaromatic compounds commonly found in lignin hydrogenolysis oil, a renewable bio-oil that holds great promise to substitute fossil-based aromatic molecules in a wide range of chemical and material industrial applications. At first, single-crystal X-ray diffraction (SCXRD) was applied to the lignin model compounds, dihydroconiferyl alcohol, propyl guaiacol, and eugenol dimers, in order to elucidate the fundamental molecular interactions present in such small lignin-derived polyols. Then, considering the potential use of these lignin-derived molecules as building blocks for polymer applications, structural analysis was also performed for two chemically modified model compounds, i.e., the methylene-bridging propyl-guaiacol dimer and propyl guaiacol and eugenol glycidyl ethers, which can be used as precursors in phenolic and epoxy resins, respectively, thus providing additional information on how the molecular packing is altered following chemical modifications. In addition to the expected H-bonding interactions, other interactions such as π-π stacking and C-H∙∙∙π were observed. This resulted in unexpected trends in the tendencies towards the crystallization of lignin compounds. This was further explored with the aid of DSC analysis and CLP intermolecular energy calculations, where the relationship between the major interactions observed in all the SCXRD solid-state structures and their physico-chemical properties were evaluated alongside other non-crystallizable lignin model compounds. Beyond lignin model compounds, our findings could also provide important insights into the solid-state structure and the molecular organization of more complex lignin fragments, paving the way to the more efficient design of lignin-based materials with improved properties for industrial applications or improving downstream processing of lignin oils in biorefining processes, such as in enhancing the separation and isolation of specific bioaromatic compounds).
期刊介绍:
The International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067) provides an advanced forum for chemistry, molecular physics (chemical physics and physical chemistry) and molecular biology. It publishes research articles, reviews, communications and short notes. Our aim is to encourage scientists to publish their theoretical and experimental results in as much detail as possible. Therefore, there is no restriction on the length of the papers or the number of electronics supplementary files. For articles with computational results, the full experimental details must be provided so that the results can be reproduced. Electronic files regarding the full details of the calculation and experimental procedure, if unable to be published in a normal way, can be deposited as supplementary material (including animated pictures, videos, interactive Excel sheets, software executables and others).